Posts Tagged: decay

Every day I cross the Maclay Street bridge on my way to work and on my way home. I’ve noticed how overgrown the weeds have gotten and how they seemed to have taken over the sidewalks. Finally, I found myself sitting on the bridge in traffic and looked over to my left. I was looking through the side of the bridge to the railroad tracks below.

How do things get this bad? I mean, if your house had a hole this big in the wall, and you found yourself looking outside, wouldn’t you fix it?

Following are a series of photos I took as I walked across the bridge. Hopefully this gains some awareness to the fact that this area is in dire need of attention. I hope to schedule a public/community cleanup day in the near future. If the city isn’t going to do it, then let the concerned citizens of Harrisburg spearhead the initiative and accomplish things.

This is the back of a large TV sitting in the weeds along the sidewalk of the bridge.

More trash sitting on the sidewalk.

The concrete of the bridge has worn away exposing the rebar of the structure of the bridge.

Not sure what kind of repair job this is. I wouldn’t be proud of this workmanship.

Our second stop on our Pennsylvania photo trip was the Concrete City located near Nanticoke, Pennsylvania. This area was built in 1911 for the management of the local coal industry. The area was abandoned in 1924 and left to be reclaimed by nature. In 1998 the Concrete City was declared a historic site.

The site is often used for paintball games. In fact, there were quite a few people playing paintball when we arrived. They kindly stopped their game and notified others that we were there. If you are a photographer and looking for an end-of-the-world type of setting for a photo shoot, this is the place!

Over the weekend I had a chance to visit Centralia, Pennsylvania with some friends. Centralia is a town in the coal region of Pennsylvania has had a coal fire burning below it since 1962. Most of the residents have moved but some still remain.

In the 2006 horror film Silent Hill, the town of Silent Hill has been abandoned due to a prolonged mine fire, which writer Roger Avary says was inspired by Centralia.[16] Aspects of this are shown throughout the movie, such as characters wandering through the misty version of Silent Hill wearing mining gear.